National Broadband Policy needs concrete goals to succeed

What is the role of the states within this National Broadband Plan? Will the FCC be given authority to overrule any regulation that impedes a National Broadband Plan, such as the varying rules related to municipal telecommunication networks?

At this stage, there are more questions than answers.  Nonetheless, the FCC and the U.S. government have the rare opportunity to press the restart button and finally set a policy and plan that can truly place the U.S. in a leadership position. 

A U.S. National Broadband Plan must focus not only on the fixed broadband infrastructure, but fully account for the ongoing developments in wireless broadband, particularly LTE and WiMAX.   As such, this plan must detail near, mid and long-term goals with respect to not only the desired services, but the infrastructure and associated parameters required to support them. This plan must focus beyond the last-mile and take into perspective the entire end-to-end broadband infrastructure.  Similar to Korea, any network that is part of the National Broadband Plan should be a Quality of Service-guaranteed multi-media network that offers integrated services of communications, broadcasting and Internet ubiquitously, continuously and securely.

Given the large investments most likely to be required, it will be important for the FCC and Congress to clearly define the roles of both Government and private industry, because any National Broadband Plan will require some form of public-private partnerships to work and must be supported by ubiquitous policy (same across all states) to insure its success.

From a financial perspective, the National Broadband Plan will require tax incentives, such as credits or accelerated depreciation schedules, to spur the necessary investment required for what will likely be a highly advanced next-generation broadband infrastructure.  An example is Malaysia, in which the Government recently approved a 100 percent investment allowance on capital expenditure incurred by the last mile network facilities providers for broadband infrastructure to provide broadband services. This incentive is applicable for investment made and equipment purchased from 8 September 2007 until 31 December 2010 – the time frame for the build out of its National High Speed Broadband Network.

While broadbandtrends applauds the FCC's effort to deliver a national broadband plan that seeks to ensure that every American has access to broadband capability, it must take further steps.  Access itself is not enough; it must focus on increasing adoption as well. 

Instead of sifting through what is likely to be thousands of pages of comments, perhaps the FCC should have establish a blue-ribbon task force with participants from all facets of the broadband industry – equipment vendors, broadcasters, CPE manufacturers, Internet Service Providers, ILECs, CLECs, MSOs, etc. to develop its plan.

Additionally, it would be prudent for all parties involved to delay the delivery of such a plan until data from the BDIA is available so that the FCC has the most accurate inputs before setting any benchmarks.  

Without this, the FCC should instead focus on delivering a framework for a National Broadband Plan rather than the plan itself.

Teresa Mastrangelo is principal analyst with broadband trends.